'They're Not Treating Mom Well'

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/they-re-not-treating-mom-well-1375279762



When the ambulance crew arrived, about 8:20 p.m., Joan Boice was in the TV lounge, face-down on the carpet. Her head had struck the floor with some velocity; bruises were forming on her forehead and both cheeks. It appeared she’d lost her balance and fallen out of a chair.

But no one at the assisted living facility could say precisely how the accident had occurred. No one knew how long Joan had been splayed out on the floor. She had defecated and urinated on herself.

Worried that Joan might have injured her spine, the emergency medical personnel gently rolled her over and placed her on a back board. They pumped oxygen into her nostrils.

It was Sept. 22, 2008 — just 10 days after Joan had first moved into Emerald Hills.

[ejpoeta]

1. this is how we treat our elderly. uggh.

My brother in law got sick and was in the hospital. He found out his lungs were swiss cheese and almost died. He was on a ventilator and it was pretty bad. He recovered and was sent to a rehab place. He ended up back in the hospital after getting sick from lack of care at this place. Now, my sister was there every day. She is a lawyer and she was all over them to make sure Rick got the care he needed and he STILL ended up back in the hospital. We were afraid they'd send him back there. They did, but it was better. Probably because my sister doesn't take any crap and she will call you on it with no reservation. Why should it be required? Why can't these places just do their damned job. It isn't all about money. At least it shouldn't be. There are other things to consider. Uggh.

[pipoman]

3. To a point it has to be about money..

our state has steady cut medicaid reimbursements...senior care is littered with medicaid recipients..these cuts require budgets to match revenues...I work for a non-profit senior healthcare facility and this is a serious problem..

[ejpoeta]

5. i understand that. it pisses me off that they keep cutting medicaid reimbursements.

it's not going to cut our taxes. i don't know why people don't see that. the government is going to spend money. It's WHERE they spend it that we should be concerned with. It should be spent on healthcare as the people in these nursing homes and on medicaid and medicare have paid taxes. We all have. The money we pay in taxes should go to help US not corporations or big money donors... or for more wars.

[LuvNewcastle]

7. How is the pay?

I know that pretty much everyone feels like they should be making more than they are, but how do the people in your facility and others you know feel about the amount they're paid versus the level of care they provide? The morale of the employees makes a big difference in any business, but I imagine that it's especially important in a health care facility. Dealing with sick and dying people is one of the most difficult jobs around and not just everybody with a degree can handle it. You know a lot more about it than I do.

[pipoman]

9. Pay is competitive

I could make more somewhere else probably...outside of senior care, however I didn't choose this for the money. It is very personally rewarding. I have been working for 2 years to change the food from boxed institutional products to all homemade cooking..regulatory compliance is one reason the industry went to 'hospital food', homemade food is more difficult to meet regulatory guidelines for nutritional information and preparation standards than opening a box with all of the nutritional on the label and encased in aluminum just heat & serve..the rewards have been great and residents now look forward to meals.

I am lucky to work for a very quality oriented, progressive facility. Consistently winning numerous awards for excellence at the state and national level.

[LuvNewcastle]

10. I'm glad you're happy, and the people in your facility are

very fortunate to have you there. When you have a job that's rewarding for you and you're able to make other people's lives better too, it's a wonderful thing.

[PotatoChip]

15. The thing is though, I don't think that (in this case) we are talking about

a medicaid reimbursement issue here. Obviously a problem (that you rightly point out) but I believe, different from the situation here...

This is about a private, for-profit company by the name of Emeritus that has many "assisted living" facilities in California and perhaps (?) other states as well. I use scare quotes here to highlight the fact that this company has repeatedly been found to have been taking in elderly people who are far too sick for the training level of Emeritus' employees, and need to be in a skilled nursing facility. Apparently this is being done in violation of California law, but for the company, it's all about "heads on the beds" and making sure that every room is filled (despite staffing shortages) in order to maximize profit.

Ironically, I just finished watching a Frontline program about this, and the case of Joan Boice (mentioned in the OP) is only one of many egregious cases of neglect due to Emeritus' profit driven system.

While I know that both assisted living facilities and nursing homes can be very expensive, I get the impression that Emeritus' 4K per/month charges are above the norm, and therefore not necessarily a medicaid reimbursement issue?... Please correct me if I am wrong here.

Anyway, here is the Frontline program, in case you, or anyone else is interested: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/life-and-death-in-assisted-living/

[pipoman]

17. I understand that

the regulations are in place for places left to their own devices would stack the people like cord wood and feed them bread and water. It is the same regulations which challenges facilities like the one I work for in making positive changes. Of coarse food service is the area I am in so those challenges are most real to me, and may be the most difficult to overcome. An example..according to regulations the exact same options must be available to every resident of the facility. This is a skilled nursing facility, so there are residents with swallowing issues. These residents must eat "mechanically textured foods" and thickened liquids. Puree..and thick mountain dew, milk, water, etc. They cannot have anything with chunks in it. We make all homemade ice cream...right now in the restaurant I manage in independent living we have 12 flavors. A favorite flavor is raspberry chocolate chunk. I can't make it available to residents in the nursing facility who have no swallowing issues, because I can't texture the ice cream to a consistency safe for them...even though we have 6 other flavors with no chunks..including raspberry..it is because there are facilities who would serve puree diets the same menu every day if they could get away with it..no less frustrating..this is just one example of many we've encountered while trying to break the "hospital food" cycle..

$4k per month is pretty cheap in the middle of nowhere, like here...it has to be absolute bargain basement in CA..they drop the price to fill it up, but can't afford to staff or serve good food..pink slime and all..

I'll watch the vid later..people in this thread saying they would rather be dead than in a nursing facility are silly..I can understand rather being dead than loosing control of one's faculties, or a dreaded disease..but just getting too old to care for one's self doesn't mean life can't still be fun and rewarding..it's too bad so many have such a jaded opinion of nursing facilities based on horror stories like these asshats committed..

[pipoman]

2. It is shit like this that

results in even more regulations on senior healthcare facilities. Necessary regulations at some bad facilities result in over regulation of good facilities...effecting choices of residents and hampering creative solutions..

That said, the facility I work for has security cameras covering every common area in the building...if this was required everywhere there would be no guessing how or when this occurred..

[RobinA]

16. This Is Certainly True

I work in a different kind of residential facility. Regulations make life miserable for our clients, but came about because of other sorts of misery. They correct one problem and create three more.

One thing that isn't regulatory and could solve many ills - direct care staffing. Number of staff, training of staff, paying of staff. We pay lousy (although better than some), as a result have VERY low standards on hiring, don't train them, treat them like crap, ask them to do five things at once, and then wonder why their work product is not what one would hope for. I know this was true at my Grandmother's assisted living place as well, and that place was pretty good.

[pipoman]

18. The facility I work for is the pinnacle of senior health care..

without going into a upscale facility...which aren't always better.. The workers..especially the leadership..managers etc all share a common interest in serving our residents. Most employee's families volunteer for various tasks. My family and a couple of other families have prepared and served Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner for several years allowing most employees the holiday noon meal off with their families..we now feed almost 3 times more people than we have residents..virtually every day there are employee family volunteers on campus. There has never been a person not allowed to stay because of inability to pay. We have fund raisers like an auction of donated items of value, bake sales, garage sales, I serve around 400 people a $125 per plate meal with entertainment, served 1,000+ on the 4th of July..all to pay the expenses of those unable to pay. We collect what we can from medicare, medicaid and others and eek by each year after picking up a large tab for people who aren't able to pay...everyone is given respect..I have no idea who is staying without paying and who isn't only administrators and probably board members know that...I know the numbers..over half are not able to fully pay each month..It is a community effort.

[lapislzi]

4. Kicking and rec-ing

I think we need to prepare ourselves for a glut of stories like these. As the population bubble of post-WWII America ages, this is going to be the literal truth for many of us.

This is horrible to contemplate as an aging American (I'm in my 50s). I have every intention of doing myself in before I am consigned to such a place.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. Me too. I'd rather die young than end up in one of those places.

My mom took in her dad when he was dying and took shifts taking care of her mother when she was dying. I can't let her go to one, either, when the time comes.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. I promised Gram she would never have to leave her house.

It took a part time caregiver, my Dad and me working around the clock to make sure she didn't have to.
Other than raising my 3 boys, it was the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done.
My little brother and his daughter took care of our Mom for the last 4 years, until she passed in April. They admittedly had it even rougher, as Mom was in and out of the hospital and rehab for diabetic infections. They didn't have the support of good constant caregivers like we did.

We can take better care of our elderly and sick loved ones, but you have to be willing to sacrifice most of your own life to do it. In the end, you gain much more, imo.

[reformist2]

11. That's beautiful. I hope to be able to do the same thing.

[navarth]

12. INEXCUSABLE

My Mom is in a good place, very expensive, but still we constantly monitor how things are going. The people working there are extremely hurried and harried, lots of memory care patients to deal with. So the family has to be VERY involved. So far so good for us, we've never experienced anything like the OP. If something like that happened to my Mom I would be that facility's WORST NIGHTMARE. You should do the same.

[bakpakr]

13. I work in LTC (Long Term Care), Nursing Home

I currently work in a Nursing Home as a male CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant). I have been doing this work for about eight years now. I love it and love my job BUT;

Staffing is always an issue. My set (the residents assigned to me) ranges from 10 residents as the low to a high of 20. I do provide the best care that time allows. Do I wish I had more time to provide care to my residents, you bet I do. But the reality is that none of us in the profession have that luxury. I know my residents and thus can anticipate their needs. But due to call offs and scheduling issues we are continually pulled to other areas of the facility. We do not know the residents in those areas that we are assigned and thus providing care takes longer and we cannot anticipate the needs of those residents. Thus they may only receive the most basic of care. We are continually asked to work double shifts and come in on our days off. We do not have time to watch every resident all of the time. Most times you walk onto my unit you will not see a single CNA because we are in a residents room. So family members assume that we are not on the floor and complain.

Family members can be great and they can also be the bane of my existence. Don't get me wrong I really do appreciate family members that take an active role in their family members care. They are a great source of information about the resident I am caring for. Thus making my job that much easier. Then there are those that demand we do every little thing. What they do not realize is that they are taking time away from my other residents. I do understand that they want the best possible care for their loved one. I was recently in their same position in that my mother was in need of care prior to her death and I also demanded the best care possible from her care givers. I did come at it from a care givers perspective though and thus did not overly burden her care giver.

I also see the total opposite in that the family drops off their loved one and that is the last we see of the family until the resident passes away.

I am lucky in that I work at a facility that pays well. As a matter of fact the facility that I work at is the highest paying in the area. Thanks to the fact that we are a Union facility. The next highest paying facility pays more than two dollars an hour less then I make. The average pay for a CNA in my area is eleven dollars an hour. My benefits are adequate but not the best. Yes they are Union benefits and thus better than most receive at other facilities.

We all know that due to the economy that Health-care is a viable and in demand option for a job. We all also know that a job in Health-care is not for everyone. I have been seeing a large number of individuals enter the field that have no business being in Health-care. We do tend to weed them out rather quickly. But while they are there they can do allot of damage in that they tend to provide substandard care. They get overwhelmed with the demands of the job.

I am going to cut this wall of text here. I could go on but will leave it at that. Thanks for reading.

[Bunnahabhain]

14. This is what happens

when society decides to "outsource" caring for family members past their productive years. I would love to see more families care for their elderly at home. The problem is one (or more) of the family members in their productive years might not be able to work, or only work part time, and by god we have that next huge flatscreen TV or SUV to buy.